Abstract: PURPOSE: To understand oral health professionals' knowledge, attitude, behavior and training needs related to clinical research, and explore relevant factors affecting clinical research knowledge level. METHODS: An online self-designed questionnaire was conducted among oral health professionals from the collaborative innovation network member units of the National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases (Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine). The data were processed with SAS 9.4 software package. RESULTS: A total of 281 oral health professionals were enrolled in the study. Most of them had a positive attitude towards clinical research, 80% of them had an idea of carrying out clinical research, while only 22.8% of them implemented finally. The main causes restricting oral health professionals from conducting clinical research were lack of time (68.3%), insufficient teams (63.7%), and short of financial support (60.9%). Participants' mean score of clinical research knowledge was (13.72±7.20) points. Multiple linear regression model showed the type of hospital, clinical research participation in the past five years and epidemiologists' or statisticians' involvement in the latest project were related to participants' knowledge level of clinical research. CONCLUSIONS: Oral health professionals have a positive attitude towards clinical research, while their behavior and knowledge about clinical research were weak. Strengthening the top design of clinical research is inseparable from the cultivation of professionals' clinical research ability. The national clinical research center should give full play to the mission of the "national team", accelerate the establishment of a specialized, normalized and large-scale clinical research training pattern, and provide training opportunities to network member units.

Key words: Oral health professionals, Clinical research, Knowledge, attitude, practice, Demands